Pan-Galactic (also known as Blob In Space in the official soundtrack) is the sole mood available for the Hypno Ray level in de Blob 2. Unlike most other moods, Pan-Galactic gets referenced multiple times over the course of the game.
Pan-Galactic has eight stems. Below is a table describing each.
Stem
Description
inked/nc
Synthesizer no color variant with pads.
low 1
Slow snare, bongos, and bass drums, with background vacuum-like sound.
low 2
Slow guitar strums and plucks, with legato hammond organ chords, and bass guitar.
high 1
Fast main drum-kit and bongos.
high 2
Faster guitar strumming, with staccato hammond organ chords, and bass guitar.
high 3
Bass drum and leading theremin. Hammond organ arpeggios during F-minor section.
high 4
Horns, which play staccato during F-minor section.
high 5
Mostly silent, except during F-minor section, where reversed guitar noises play.
Stems for Pan-Galactic, and most other moods, can be found here.
Variations:[]
Pan-Galactic has the most variations of any song, at 10: 3 No Color variations, 2 Lows, 2 Mediums, and 3 Highs. Below is a table detailing which variations use which stems.
Pan-Galactic is used, although with some variations.
The Soundtrack version of Pan-Galactic, Blob In Space, is used as the music for the opening video of the game, with minor editing: The final portion of the song is used at the beginning as well, and the opening portion is skipped. The first C-minor section is also only half as long, The part of the song after the F-minor key portion is also skipped, playing the final portion once again. There is also an extra cymbal when the first portion starts.
Tranquil, the main mood for Paradise Island, uses a theremin around the middle of it's song's high variation.
Riotous also uses a theremin, this time for it's no color variation.
Pan-Galactic's low 2 variant plays towards the end of the Rocket Range cutscene, when the Colour Underground can see Comrade Black flying off in his rocket to space. It also plays with an extra music imitating the lead theremin of the main song.
The music in the cutscene at the start of Hypno Ray uses very similar instrumentation, and slightly references it as well. The entire track is in C minor, which is mostly what Pan-Galactic is in. At the start of the cutscene, the percussion is the same pattern used in the low intensity, but slightly slower. At the end of the cutscene, the melody from the theremin is a motif of Pan-Galactic's theremin, however for the rest of the instruments some are not used in Pan-Galactic, and the other ones that are don't play the same part they do in Pan-Galactic.
Similarities to the Comrade Black Boss Theme[]
Pan-Galactic and the music that plays during Comrade Black's boss battle share multiple similarities, almost making the theme sound like a continuation of Pan-Galactic itself.
Pan-Galactic's forte-1 stem, but the drums have been cut a little and rearranged to be almost exactly the same as the Comrade Black boss battle's theme.
The main drums are exactly the same. The boss theme simply used Pan-Galactic's drums, and cut them up and re-arranged them a little.
The lead theremin is also exactly the same, although plays a different melody.
The fast guitar strumming and plucks of Pan-Galactic's forte-2 stem are used, though play differently.
Pan-Galactic starts in C-minor, goes to F-minor, then returns to C-minor. Comrade Black's boss theme starts in F-minor, then goes to C-minor.
Both songs are 155bpm.
The chart below is a graph of which instruments play when. Note that it is not perfect, some having more subtle differences between variations (A dash means the instrument is used, but in a slower or more lackluster form. In the case of the main drums, they are mostly reversed).
Horns
Bass
Organ
Guitar Sounds
Main Drums
Guitar Pluck Arp
Bass Drum
Guitar Strums
String
Guitar Pluck
Guitar Piezo Arp
Theremin
(File/Music)
low 1
✓
-
-
✓
-
low 2
✓
-
-
-
medium 1
-
-
-
-
✓
medium 2
-
-
✓
✓
✓
✓
high 1
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
high 2
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
-
✓
high 3
✓
✓
-
✓
✓
✓
✓
-
✓
✓
The actual stems used in this song are currently not publicly available.
Other Trivia[]
The genre of Pan-Galactic/Blob in Space is Surf Rock, as are Riotous/The Chase and the Comrade Black boss theme.
In the leaked 2010 build of de Blob 2 (Wii), Pan-Galactic was also used as the Comrade Black boss music, suggesting the actual boss theme was completed very late into development.
In an interview, John Guscott (composer for the games) has admitted that the lead theremin for the song is actually a synthesizer:
"Oh, and the Theremin of course (which is actually a Moog synthesizer. If you’ve ever tried to play a real Theremin you’ll know why we used a synth. The real instruments are ludicrously difficult to play and take years to master!)"- John Guscott, OSV
